Boardroom Table for the New York Yankees

You never know what you'll find when digging through old photos.

Yes, this is me. It's photographic proof that I was once young, buff, and had hair.

I am sitting at the end of a custom boardroom table we made for the New York Yankees professional baseball team back in January 1996. The top was a modified elliptical oval measuring 26 feet long by 6 feet wide. It was made of highly figured Crotch Mahogany, which was stained and polished to a high sheen.

This boardroom table was commissioned by Brueton Industries of New York, as a modified version of the Virginian Table designed by J. Wade Beam.

(The table was shipped with a Toronto Blue Jays sticker attached to the underside. I'll never know whether George Steinbrenner saw the humour in that).

Contemplating: Who Reads This Blog?

When speaking with other bloggers the comment I hear most often is: "I can never tell if anyone is even reading this thing, because no one makes any comments."

I am no different when it comes to questioning the level of interest in my writing, because after 17 posts (not including this one) only 3 people have bothered to comment so far.

Although I could be disappointed by this, in all honesty the lack of response doesn't really bother me at all - for several reasons.

First, my underlying reason for starting this blog really had very little to do with how popular it might become. In reality, given my son's interest in doing what I do for a living I wanted to document as many of my experiences and life lessons as possible in the hope that this might somehow be of benefit to him. After all, to paraphrase Winston Churchill: "Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them."

Second, for a long time I have wanted to write a book on the trials and tribulations of making a living as a full time furniture maker. Writing this blog has forced me to take a major step in that direction, because I am now compelled to sort through my memory databases, paperwork junk piles and photographic archives to assemble my thoughts and experiences into some kind of (hopefully) coherent story.

Third, despite the lack of actual comments this blog receives I am helped by the fact that I have installed a widget called Lijit here. What is Lijit? Lijit is basically a piece of software that provides metrics on what people see and like about the blog. In essence, it tells me a little bit about the type of reader who does visit, and why. (You'll notice a tiny map with flags in the top right corner of the main page, which highlights the location of recent visitors).

Lijit is actually pretty cool. While it doesn't tell me specifically who my actual visitors are, it does tell me what location blog hits are coming from - and why. For example, I know there's a reader in Denmark who has checked out my postings a couple of times because they Google searched "Furniture Society Faculty Selects". I have a couple of readers in Mexico, including Oaxaca; and two new readers from Germany and Argentina, respectively. Plus there's also someone in Kathmandu, Nepal who has checked in once or twice.

Nepal? Who would have thought that anyone in Nepal would be reading something here?

A number of hits have also come from Google in Costa Rica, plus others via Google engines in Australia, Brazil, Dubai, the Netherlands and UAE. Lately it seems that Google searches for the term "500 Cabinets" is one of the biggest drivers of interest.

Perhaps the biggest thrill of all came a couple of days ago when I suddenly found my Lijit page lit up with hundreds of hits. This happened just after my post about the New York Yankees boardroom table, and my first thought was that maybe I hit a literary sweet spot that piqued reader interest.

Upon further investigation it turns out that what really happened was that someone in California posted a link on a forum saying, in effect, that this was an "interesting blog". Thanks to that shout-out alone I have received well over 400 hits (and counting) in only a couple of days.

While none of these new readers have posted any replies, the coolest thing for me is knowing that my writings are actually resonating with people outside my immediate circle.

And, so, to the reader in California and to everyone else who have come here to check out these writings, I say: "Thanks". Your interest is an added boost that encourages me to keep writing.

The Journey Continues (Pt. 11) - The Call From Brueton

When I was told that J. Wade Beam from Brueton was on the phone I thought for sure that someone was playing a practical joke on me.

Brueton at the time was one of the world's elite high end furniture companies. Wade was both the chief designer and Director of Sales and Marketing for them, and for the past five years I had been trying (without success) to meet with Wade each time I travelled to New York. Each effort made at their showroom in the D&D Building was rebuffed by the same reply: namely that Brueton did their own woodwork and didn't require outside vendors.

After confirming the call was for real I asked why he was calling. Wade told me that Brueton's primary focus was stainless steel, and they had near zero in-house woodworking capacity. They were looking to expand the wood side of their business with some new designs, but to do this they needed talent. Apparently he'd heard of us through the industry grapevine and was calling to see if we were interested.

Were we interested?

Let's put it this way: If you're a car maker and a guy named Enzo Ferrari calls to see if you want to build some high end cars with him, what do you say?

Hell, yes !!

For months on end we worked intensively with Wade to develop a wide range of new designs, which were eventually unveiled at NEOCON in Chicago. It was during NEOCON that I finally met the company's owner, Leo Fromm.

Mr. Fromm was a successful publishing magnate from Germany who owned several companies. His interest in owning Brueton seemed to stem from his absolute love for fine furniture. I got the impression that, for him, owning Brueton was akin to why some men own professional sports teams - for the love of what the franchise represents, and a passion for excellence.

In the photo above Mr. Fromm is reviewing one of the new Concerto Table prototypes. He especially loved how the 4-way box match of the Crotch Mahogany top formed a pattern that, to him, looked like a butterfly's wings. I was astounded at how something so seemingly simple could move this man so deeply.

It wasn't long before company president Howard Chapman sat down with me to write out a slew of orders. With several strokes of the pen we were suddenly very busy again.

The ensuing years turned out to be an especially exciting time for us, because many of the designs coming out of Brueton really pushed the envelope of our woodworking and finishing capabilities.

The Virginian Credenza was probably the most difficult of all the new prototypes. Maybe for that reason it was also one of the most satisfying pieces we have ever produced. The main body was comprised of two half shells - each made of an inner and outer kerfed ply filled with epoxy resin, which was then vacuum formed around an elliptical plug.

The back shell was fitted with shelves and dividers, while the front was cut into doors. The top was center butt matched Crotch Mahogany trimmed with ribbon sapele. The stainless steel detail at the floor is actually convex in shape, to emulate the curve of the casework. All exposed woodwork was finished in high gloss polyester to accentuate the grain.

The Virginian Table presented some challenges of it's own. While the elliptical base was easy enough to make, shaping the bottom of it to match the freeform curve of the stainless steel plinth as challenging to say the least. The box matched Crotch Mahogany top was encased in a 3" band of solid ribbon mahogany, which needed to be step routed by hand with custom carbide to achieve its deep elliptical profile.

Concerto Tables had quirks of their own, especially in final assembly. The holes in the stainless steel ring had to align perfectly with the leg bushings for these tables to be symmetrical.

During its peak years Brueton was a magnet for creative talent such as Mitchell Pickard - shown here testing out his new Melrose Chair. In subsequent years we would collaborate with Mitch on on many of his furniture designs, including the Angeline Console which was recently featured in "500 Cabinets" by Lark Books.

As a testament to his creative range Mitch is currently designing and building some very cool custom motorcycle wheels and parts at his own company, Pickard USA

Our collaboration with Brueton allowed us to produce some exceptional custom furniture pieces, including this 22' long boardroom table for the New York Yankees professional baseball team. What isn't apparent in the photo is how we managed to subtly blend 3 elliptical spline segments into a functional ergonomic shape. This table would otherwise have been "pointy" at the ends had a pure ellipse been used.

Prior to shipping we stuck a Toronto Blue Jays sticker to the underside of the top.

I never heard if George Steinbrenner found that funny.